Missed
by sasahara17
Summary: AU and OOC, While Elsa, Claes and Pino are having their globe trek, what is the rest of the SWA up to?
1. DEAD END

Gunslinger Girl 

Missed

by Sasahara 17

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Disclaimer; Gunslinger Girl is the property of Yu Aida. I am not it's rightful owner.

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-**Dead End**-

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The following is classified –M- for cartoon gore. Faint of heart, stop right here!

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**Choice** – **Ascend with Caution**

-

"What happened to Elsa was quite sad wasn't it." Henrietta said tearfully.

Triela nodded her head.

After the trio of cyborgs had successfully eliminated the rouge, they had spent a full week in re-hab. Triela was rather miffed that she couldn't be able to badger her compatriots on how they brought down Elsa de Sica off the bat. It was Henrietta and Claes' first day back in the dorms, and Triela fully expected to make up for lost time.

Unfortunately for Triela, she would not be able talk to Henrietta or Claes about their adventure. And that was because…

"I can't imagine what it was like, her killing Lauro and turning the gun on herself."

Triela did a spit take with her tea. "Wh-what?"

Henrietta looked at Triela, quite perplexed at the latter's adverse reaction. "Triela, is something the matter?" Triela stared at the girl wide eyed, jaw slack. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Henrietta, don't you remember? Elsa went rouge and you and Claes went to put her down?"

"Don't be stupid Triela." Claes muttered as she looked up from the book she was reading. "Everybody knows that Elsa shot herself after killing her handler." Triela couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Besides, they'd never let me out of here. You know that."

Completely at a loss for words, Triela heard a knock on her room door.

Triela instantly knew who it was. She was Triela and he was Hillshire. She'd know him coming from a mile away. Excusing herself, Triela went to get her answers.

-

"What. Happened?" Triela glared at Hillshire.

The poor German had rushed over when he remembered he was supposed to tell Triela of the 'replacement memories' Henrietta, Claes and Beatrice had to receive. Jose almost strangled him when they realized he had neglected to tell Triela not to ever speak of the incident to his dear sweet Henrietta.

Didn't want a relapse, no sir.

Hillshire cleared his throat.

"The hunt didn't go as planned…"

-

Suddenly Beatrice's eyes shot open and her upper body snapped into a firing position. She squeezed off a three round burst from her FAMAS, and hit her target in the right hand, searing off the thumb and index finger and causing Elsa to lose her grip.

Elsa realized it was a long way down from where she was.

Six stories down.

"Yahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Elsa hit the ground legs first. In a spectacular show of gore, the force of the impact broke off her legs clean off at the knees in a shower of blood. Unfortunately, the impact also caused Elsa to spring back into the air… high into the air.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

By this time, the three other Gunslinger Girls was gaping wide eyed completely speechless at the spectacle unfolding before them. Yes, even Beatrice who had dropped her FAMAS, stunned at what her single three round burst had done.

They wanted to turn away, avert their eyes, shield their sanities, but it was so morbidly fascinating that they couldn't. It was unlike anything they had ever seen before, a death so gruesome and sickening it was almost artistic in its own way. They had seen gore before, but this was _gore_.

Elsa collided with the ground again, this time arms first. The arms broke at the elbows, then at the shoulders. The platter of gore shot into the air like a fountain as the four pieces that once made up her arms rolled around on the floor.

Henrietta had no idea when she started screaming, but she was.

Elsa's main body, once again propelled into the air by the impact this time bounced in the direction of Beatrice and Henrietta as both girls dived out of the way for the flying torso. Blood was streaming out of the Elsa's injuries and poor Henrietta found herself splashed with a good dose of it as the amazing bouncing cyborg torso sped by.

Elsa crashed head first into a wall, her head imploding like a watermelon.

Silence.

The three gunslinger girls cautiously approached the now deceased corpse of Elsa de Sica with extreme trepidation.

-

Their handlers watching from the live feed, immediately started checking how much they had already drunk. While Bernado had downed a grand total of two beers, both Pietro and Jose were dry as a bone.

"This is really happening." Jose said pinching himself. "I'm not dreaming."

"Goddamn, I thought that stuff only happened in the movies." Pietro agreed.

"…or video games." Bernado added, crushing his empty can and taking new ones from his stash, passing the cans of beer around to the other men. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm scarred for life. Drink up, I think the situation calls for it."

-

Beatrice was to first to speak. Drenched in blood from the flying torso the normally emotionless cyborg killer spoke with a shaky and timid voice, her eyes dilated and lips quivering.

"Did… I… do _this_?"

"I… think you did." Henrietta said.

"Wh-what do we do now?" Beatrice hesitantly nudged the corpse with her foot.

"I-I think we should report b-back." Claes tried to steady her voice. She had to remain the voice of reason. She was the only one who had not been soaked by Elsa's flying blood. "The target is d-dead. Mission com-complete, right?"

Inside her own mind, Claes' mental inability to use firearms was now further reinforced by this incident. A three found burst completely dismembered poor Elsa de Sica. Even a murderer didn't deserve such a horrible death. Claes looked at the gun in her hand and dropped it to the floor. No way was she ever going to use one of these demonic things ever again, not even if the Agency threatened her on pain of death!

Henrietta nodded and tried to smile despite her the fact she felt she was going to throw up. "Yeah, l-lets go ba… C-C-Cl-Cl-Cla-Cla-CLAES! O-O-On your head!"

"What?" Claes suddenly registered there was something resting balanced on the top her head. Reaching up and taking it in her hand, Claes saw it was a severed hand. The three girls looked huddled together, all looking at the hand in Claes grasp.

I was a severed hand sans a thumb and index finger…

…

…

…

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"TASUKETE, RABALO-SAN! TASUKETE! TASUKETE!"

-

"…are you serious?" Triela asked skeptically.

"Unfortunately, yes." Hillshire replied, and held up a disembodied hand in a plastic bag to prove his point. Triela paled. "Triela, please, whatever you do don't bring up anything that might make them remember. Please. Beatrice is still being treated…"

Triela held up her hand. Say no more.

"…So Elsa shot herself after shooting Lauro was it?"

-

**BAD END**, Continue, **Y/N**?

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Partially inspired by 'Innocence needs protecting' by Evinssyin, and watching one too many violent stick flash movies.

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A/N

Yeah, I moved 'Bad End' over into a new story. This way I can to come up with as many skits as I want and not bog down the main story. 'Missed' will now contain stories from the universe in which Elsa did not blow her brains out.

While 'Marked' will focus on Elsa and her two trackers, Claes and Pino, from chapter 2 onwards 'Missed' will chronicle the exploits of generally everybody else (no more bad ends). Pino isn't around to tuss up Triela anymore and there is the question as to who is tending Claes' garden while the garndenr is away on an extended trip. Heck, some skits may be so far removed from the chase that even be canon.

Just to clarify, I'm also quite sick of the Padania, and hoping for no less than six 'new' special interest groups to be baying for Elsa's blood at the final showdown. Problem is, I only got one.  
I'm making MI-7 (Britain's 'defunct' intelligence division dedicated to censorship and propaganda) as a major antagonist and Britain's black ops squad. I have alot of respect for the Brits, and cannot think of any other tough as nails 'ordinary humans' that can bring down a renegade cyborg. Still that's one. Plus two. That makes three.

Only rule; the 'Handsome Men' are out, Elsa needs a clean slate with them for the tragedy at the end to be possible. Other than that, please forward any and all suggestions to the following e-mail address. you, and good night.

-

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	2. Vegetable Garden

Disclaimer; I do not own Gunslinger Girl, it is the property of Yuu Aida.

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**Gunslinger Girl, "Marked' Side story, Vegetable Garden**

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**Claes disappears.**

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Henrietta was happily preparing her get well card or Beatrice when a dismayed shriek resounded through the entire facility. The cry came from Treila and Claes room.

As with any normally inquisitive adolescent child, Henrietta dropped what she was doing and ran to investigate. Except unlike a normally inquisitive adolescent child, she had grabbed her P90 on the way out and was loading a fresh magazine into it.

What she found when she got there was a small congestion of heavily armed cyborgs outside the door of Treila and Claes room. Rico had taken up a position with her back against the wall adjacent to the door, her sidearm drawn.

A plethora of ideas flew through Henrietta's mind.

Enemy attack? With Elsa's betrayal of the Social Welfare Agency, it was not inconceivable that the rouge would double back in the long time she had and strike at them. And the Five Republic Sepratists had started a wild string of minor attacks through out the city, ranging from anything as severe as a drive by shooting on a police station to as bizarre as a bunch of rebel sympathizes running up to security officers to start a fistfight. They weren't pulling any punches now that the SWA's attention was divided.

Henrietta needn't have worried. Rico stepped in front of the door and had her hand on the handle, preparing to carefully turn it and appraise the room when…

WHAM

"Girls! Look at this!" Triela had flung the door open and held a three page letter in her outstretched hand to the small crowd. "It's from Claes, she…"

But everyone wasn't looking at the letter. They were looking at the poor girl knocked unconscious on the floor, having been forcefully batted aside when Triela had thrown the reinforced steel door (1) open in her panic. "I'm sorry Jean… don't hit me again…" Rico moaned as a small trickled of blood slid down her forehead.

"Oops."

---

There was disbelief among the cyborgs of Section 2.

Claes had, dare they say it, left the building.

She'd packed up her meager belongings and was taken by Priscilla to the bus station where she succeeded in doing what Hillshire and Triela failed to do, pick up Elsa's trail.

The short but concise letter in Claes' neat handwriting had explained her situation. Her mission to capture Elsa de Sica, her extended leave from the agency, how she wished them all well until she got back... Triela was in hysterics, and the other girls where in a state of alarm, even worse than if a bomb went off in HQ and incinerated all their handlers.

Several cyborgs simply ran up to their handler's and demanded answers. Concerns such as 'Claes doesn't know how to fight! How can you do this to her!?' or 'I can do the job better, darn it!' or even 'Does this mean we get more ice cream now since there is one less mouth to feed?' were raised with management, but were gently turned down. The order came straight from Lorenzo himself, and there was no arguing it. His word was law.

The girls were forced to quietly return to the dormitory, a place that now seemed to be missing a crucial element, and mull over this unexpected turn of events. Claes was their sister, a friend and sometimes even a teacher. Never before had she departed from their lives in such a big way.

To say they were in a state of shock was an understatement.

-

On the Handler's end their reactions were more organized and controlled seeing as how they were grown adults. It still didn't stop a few choice people from storming up to Lorenzo and Jean and asking if their glorious leader and his loyal assistant were mad.

Lorenzo had kept Claes' assignment under wraps for some reason, probably because he was dreading the inevitable protests that would ensure (2), or perhaps he just wanted to have his agent leave without warning so as to surprise any spies that they even had appointed a tracker at all.

It was Lorenzo, and the man was a mystery, even to his subordinates.

Obviously, the Section Two staff were not happy with this development. Claes was the constant of the SWA. She never went anywhere. Period. It was the 'unbreakable law of the universe' as so said by Amadeo.

On a clear summer's day, you could look out the window and see her working tenderly in her garden.

When it rained, a stroll past the music room and soothing, pleasant notes of a piano would waft through the empty halls.

On a cool winter morning it was calming to see her quietly engrossed in her tomes.

She was a tender reminder of the simple things in life in a world gone mad. The one constant in the lives of the staff, human and cyborg, of Section 2, young bookish Claes who abhorred the use of guns…

…was now on a bus to Sicily to capture a psychotic killing machine.

Many of the staff of Section 2 finally realized the meaning of the saying, 'You never know you've had it till it's gone'.

And man, did they protest.

All the while, Jose and Pietro were teasing a certain former detective about being shown up by a bookworm. Claes did have an advantage in that she had a state of the art GPS Enabled Personal Digital Assistant. It was quicker to just look at the PDA and see Elsa's signal moving towards Sicily, as opposed to what the dynamic do did, fish out a set of filthy blood stained rags after thirty minutes of shifting though garbage. But that was beside the point.

Hillshire's pride had taken a hit. Drinks on him.

-

It was after four hours of senseless panicking and confusion among the cyborgs that Henrietta had suddenly had a brainwave by looking out the dorm windows.

Then she broached the million dollar question.

"So, uh, who's going to take care of Claes' garden?"

---

**The Chaos Begins.**

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Now, the girls knew Claes loved that vegetable garden. She worked tirelessly on it for many a day and night, so it came to no surprise to the assembled cyborgs that, upon closer examination of the letter she had left Treila, there was an attached request and a suggested timetable for the cyborgs to tend to her garden.

Naturally since Claes was their sister, and had been sent on the most dangerous mission that could be assigned to any of them given the circumstances, the girls happily went ahead and began tending to Claes garden while she was gone. It was only proper of them since Claes was finally out of the house.

Little did they know what trouble that Garden would cause for them…

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**Jose and Henrietta.**

--

Henrietta hummed cheerfully to herself. It was a bright sunny day, the birds were chirping and the weather wasn't too cold or hot. Being the one who had assisted Claes with the flower garden all this time, Henrietta was the first to be slated to tend to it while the others read the gardening books.

It was turning out of be an enjoyable pastime.

Shovel in one hand, new pumpkin seeds in the other, Henrietta hummed a sweet melodic tune to herself. She was getting the hang of this.

"Henrietta?"

"Ah, Jose!" The brunette turned to look into the face of her handler. Her day was getting better and better!

Jose appraised the sight before him. Her happy smile, her whistling, and the shovel in her hand and then gave a weary sigh. "So I see you are tending to the garden in Claes' absence, right?"

"Yup!"

"I see." Jose noted dejectedly, and then tried to butter himself up. "Oh well, I'll leave you to this then. Sorry about this interruption Henrietta."

Henrietta tilted her head in confusion. "Jose, what's the matter?"

Jose suddenly seemed hopeful. "I actually had some free time today and was hoping to take you to the 'Circue du Solei'. They made a rare visit to Rome and one of my friends managed to get two tickets for me and Jean, but we both wanted to take our 'sisters'. We did a toss up and he gave them to me…"

By this point, Henrietta was realizing where this was leading to... and she did not like it.

"…I guess I'll have to give them back and let him take Rico instead. I don't know why he wants to take her there since he never actually shows interest in her most of the time, but if you don't want to go, I'll have to give them back." Jose said, some bitterness creeping into his voice.

Now Henrietta was torn. Genuinely torn. Her duty to her sisters was being weighed up against a one in a lifetime event with Jose. The mental debate in her head almost made her explode.

Her mind went something like this.

Circue du Solei. Rico finally getting some affection.

Jose time. Claes garden.

Jose time. Claes and Triela's wrath.

Jose time. Garden needs tending.

Jose. Rico.

Henrietta decided.

"I guess I'll be some other time, right Jose? I really promised them I'd do this." Henrietta said through a strained smile.

Jose ruffled her hair and returned her smile. Although he was disappointed, his words expressed his genuine pride that he had raised her so well. "That's my girl. Keeping promises is very important. I'm very proud of you."

For some reason his praise wasn't making her as happy as it should.

The dark storm clouds began to move in.

As she watched Jose's retreating back, Henrietta suddenly felt that gardening wasn't so fun anymore.

--

Jean paid no attention to his overjoyed cyborg as she jumped up and down at the spectacle before her. She had been his excuse for coming here, not the actual reason (or so he kept telling himself). Instead he clutched the photograph his fiancé in his breast pocket of his casual suit.

"Sophia… I guess I did make good one of my promises." Jean thought of the time he told the love of his life he would one day watch the 'Circue du Solei' with her, an event that would never come to pass.

"Jean, Jean, look!" Rico said as she pointed out another incredible performance by the world famous entertainers.

He smiled bitterly. Sophia would want him to enjoy this night. That was what she always wanted. Deciding to at least make it look like he was happy, and perhaps hoping in doing so his feelings would become genuine, Jean turned to his cyborg.

"Yes Rico, its amazing isn't it?"

The blonde could only beam happily. This day was shaping up to be the best day of Rico's life.

--

Miles away, Henrietta cried herself to sleep that night.

---

---

**Jean and Rico **

--

Seeing as how it was the first day a cyborg other than herself of Claes was tending to the garden, Henrietta requested to be let off early by Jose from firearms practice to check on the situation. Jose, the softie, agreed. As Henrietta neared the vegetable farm, she was treated to a pleasant sight.

Rico hummed to herself as she watered the plants with the blue watering can. The gardening tools were all secured on Rico's person though the creative use of straps belts and other such items. Rico had taken to this as if it were a mission set by Jean himself.

Henrietta was pleased that her sister had taken to this so enthusiastically.

"Hello Rico. How are you doing today?" Henrietta greeted.

Rico returned the smile. "I just started. It took me a while to get through all those books, but I'm at it now. I've already done all the potatoes and pumpkins and was about to start on the turnips! Isn't it wonderful Henrietta?"

Henrietta was still a bit sore about missing 'Circue du Solei', and could only nod. "Yeah, so you're just watering them now right?"

"I thought I'd start it off easy." Rico scratched her cheek bashfully.

"You'll do fine." Henrietta encouraged before noting the water coming out of the watering can was not completely 'clear'. "Err… Rico?"

Rico blinked then realized what Henrietta was talking about.

"Oh that? I figured since there was a minor locust infestation a few miles south from here, I thought it would be a good idea to put some preemptive measures." Rico pointed to the bottle that rested on one of the brick walls of the garden.

Special pesticide? Henrietta had never heard of such a thing before. Slightly apprehensive, the brunette picked up the label-less bottle, unscrewed the cap and gave it a sniff.

Henrietta froze.

"Rico… this is extra strong detergent fluid."

"Yeah! I figured if I mixed it in with the water along with some other stuff and watered the plants with it they would be cleaner, wouldn't they?"

---

As expected, it wasn't long before all the potatoes and pumpkins died.

---

Miles away, Claes suddenly felt very irate and her fingers and eyebrows were twitching badly. For the love of her, she couldn't explain why.

---

**Marco and Angie**

--

Angelica was hospitalized. Again.

The poor girl was having a high fever, and for a cyborg that meant spending a long time in a hospital bead.

"Now pray tell, did this happen?" Marco said tiredly at the girl's side as she fought the bug, dabbing another cold towel on her head at the girl scrunched her face in pain.

Bainchi just shook his head. "She was tending to that garden in heavy rain. What did you expect?"

"I don't know, maybe that she exercise some common sense?"

Angelica had taken her duties too seriously. After the problematic state Rico had left it in, the determined Angelica had worked diligently on the vegetable garden to reverse the damage, and was making good progress when a storm moved in. Not the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but ever the earnest, honest and simple girl, Angie had refused to let a simple storm defeat her.

Unfortunately for her it did.

Looks like hard work and good will alone have its limits, especially if your name happens to be 'Angelica the first cyborg of Section 2'.

Marco sighed as Angie moaned something about 'plant more potato seeds' and 'harvest carrots'. If she was this bad now, imagine how she would react when she found out an uprooted three had fallen onto the garden and damaged some of the crops. It had also destroyed part of the brick wall that lined the garden in the process, something that would take a long time to clear up.

Marco could only think of one thing to say.

"That garden is more trouble than it's worth."

--

Miles away, Claes suddenly had an urge to growl fiercely and punch something. What was with her lately?

--

It was sometime later when Angelica recovered… a bit… that she attempted to leave the bed and make up for lost time. That's when Triela came in. The dark skinned assassin almost had a heart attack when she saw Angelica trying to put her casual clothes on.

"No! You are not leaving that bed." The big sister of the cyborgs forced Angelica back into a sleeping position. "Not until you get well."

Naturally, Angelica protested. "But the farm!"

"Henrietta said she'd take the rest of your shift until you get better." Treila explained.

Angelica could only nod solemnly.

"I'm sorry. I was supposed to fix it and make it better, yet…"

"Don't worry Angie! I'll fix the garden! Since when have I failed in anything before?" Triela boasted as she tapped a fist against her chest. "How hard can it be?"

---

---

**Hillshire and Triela**

--

"Triela! Triela!" Hillshire shouted. "Damn it, Triela where are you?"

Hillshire had come looking for his cyborg. He wanted to talk to her about the merits of upgrading her weapon to a Bernelli M4 Super 90, again, since the a copy of the said weapon was now going at a premium from a good gun collecting friend of his. He had visited the dorms, and Henrietta had directed him down to the vegetable garden.

To say Hillshire was shocked was an understatement. The garden was a 'right mess'.

Plants were uprooted, the soil was trussed up and the gardening equipment was all over the place. One of the shovels had been broken in half. Sullied gardening help-books were lying all about the garden, obviously having been used as reference then either accidentally dropped onto the earth or having dirt fall in between the pages.

Cement was everywhere, a gaudy piece of abstract art made of bricks and mortar now stood in the area where the damaged section of the wall had been. At least, Hillshire thought it was abstract art, if it was supposed to be a wall… then there was a problem.

Not to mention a chainsaw with an empty tank was stuck fast halfway into the fallen tree. So much so that only the handle remained visible, the saw itself vanishing into the massive wooden surface.

Hillshire had never seen such a disaster area of this magnitude before.

From his familiarity of her, Hillshire had guessed Triela had tried to maintain Claes garden. However her lack of experience in the area, the difficulty of her task and her usual short temper had resulted in the unspeakable destruction he now saw arrayed before him. Hillshire nudged one of the books lying pages down in the dirt with his shoe. Yeah, she'd tried all right. Tried a bit too hard he'd say.

Forget the Bernelli; this was a problem of a whole different scale.

Claes was going to be angry... oh yes.

His phone rang. Slightly startled, Hillshire lifted the mobile phone to his ear and spoke. "Hartman."

A shaky voice responded through the speaker. "H… Hillshire?"

Hillshire knew exactly what had happened. "Triela, were are you?"

Hillshire knew she had seen Claes' more recent combat performance reports from Priscilla and had been intimidated. Heck, they had all been awed.

Claes was doing a sterling job in the field despite having yet to fire a single round from the H&K HK45C they had given her. All the cyborgs were both impressed and, in Triela's case, intimidated by the new revelation that the quiet piano playing, book reading, gardener wasn't as harmless as they assumed, especially after she had beaten the tar of Elsa de Sica in one notable occasion.

He'd have to talk some sense into Triela before she went and did something stupid, and quickly.

Triela spoke between sobs. "Hillshire… I've drawn up my last will and testament, it's in my room … I'm very sorry about all the times I called you old, and the times we fought, and how I was so stubborn…"

"Where. Are. You?" Hillshire repeated sternly.

"…Broom closet on the first floor. What am I going to do? Claes will kill me!"

--

"DIE!"

Miles away, Claes surprised Priscilla while the two were eating steaks in a small bar and restaurant after the agent had come to replenish the cyborg's medicine supplies. Out of the blue Claes had violently drove her steak knife into meat, so much so it went into the meat, through the plate and embedded itself the polished wood table.

And she said those words too.

"Claes!" Priscilla exclaimed as numerous eyes turned towards their direction.

"S-Sorry." Claes, coming to her senses, replied bashfully. "I don't know what's happening to me lately…"

---

---

**Bernado and Beatrice.**

---

In the case of the final Cyborg duo that attempted to care for the garden, it was over before it even started.

Bernado and Beatrice had just returned from a mission in the north and had been looking to unwind by doing more mundane things... like say, gardening.

It was not to be.

When they arrived, the duo took one long look at what was once Claes precious vegetable garden for what seemed like forever. Then they looked at each in tandem other and nodded solemnly.

"Mission... impossible?" Beatrice asked her handler.

"Agreed." Bernado established.

--

Miles away, taking cover behind a wall as .44 Magnum rounds blew large chunks of wood, brick and plaster out of her cover, Claes suddenly had a feeling of dread and doom sweep over her.

A distraction in a gun battle, especially where one is armed with only a makeshift weapon, an iron skillet, against a Smith & Wesson Model 29, would be costly. However, Claes could not shake the feeling this was of utmost importance to her. Although she was miles away from the Social Welfare Agency, Claes instantly knew what it was. Her fist tightened around the handle of the metal skillet she was using as a weapon.

Something had happened to her precious vegetable garden.

Something bad.

Suddenly Claes felt a very real urge to draw the H&K HK45C, personal promises be dammed, and shoot something until the magazine was empty.

---

**All****s well that ends well.**

---

Under the supervision of the 'Great Henrietta' (3) herself, all the cyborgs worked tirelessly to restore the vegetable garden to its former glory, as if it had never been destroyed in the first place.

Stress the 'never been destroyed' bit.

There were problems. There were setbacks. Missions detracted from their repair schedule so badly they had to call Elenora and Pietro from Section One to help. And lets not get into the missions they had to partake in with Claes. Henreitta had lost count how many times the girl had almost learned of the fate for her garden. Triela was almost committed by Hillshire on several occasions. The fact Claes had become a veritable demon in combat did not help any.

It was a long and hard road.

But eventually they finished it. The vegetable garden was restored.

Much celebration ensured.

Let that forever be a lesson to you all kiddies, taking care of other people things is often hazardous to you interests, particularly if that person happens to be someone you really do not want to piss off.

---

**The End.**

---

A/N

NOTE: My proofreader is taking longer than expected to get back to me. Not his fault but a mis-estimation on my part. Anyway, since I promised everybody something, I'll put this up.

EDIT - Cut out that last part to fit my new ending. Sorry, it's not as smooth as the original ending becuase it was a last minute change, but It's more in line with continuity.

I need more cyborgs!

So far if I go by canon alone, I have Angelica, Beatrice, Henrietta, Rico and Triela. That's it! Only Five! And only four of them can fight (Angie is hospitalized)! Pertra doesn't show up until a year later, and even if I accelerate the time frame, she'd still be a few months away at least. I could inject several cyborg OC's myself since I had those Five Republic OCs, but that just feels wrong in the way of cyborgs. Perhaps I should tap into the extended fanon… well its canon only for now.

The H&K HK45C is meant to be the 'weapon Claes has on her but never uses'. She carries it because it was given to her, but can never use it because of the mental restriction she put on herself. I initially considered giving Claes her old H&K VP90M back, but I'm pretty sure that Lorenzo knows she might have a 'relapse' with that.

Expect Missed to be updated more slowly than 'Marked.', since it is only a collection of skits I thought up while writing the main story.

--

Next chappy; TBA

--

(1) Assuming that this is a cyborg dormitory, I assume there will be subtle security measures in place, including reinforced steel doors disguised as normal wooden ones. Minor change.

(2) Hey look, the man IS human after all!

(3) Triela had taken to calling Henrietta that when the brunette announced the garden though almost completely destroyed, was still salvageable. Triela's gratitude was beyond words. 


End file.
